The continuing objective of this project is to gain information about the ways in which the behavioral effects of drugs depend on the precise details of the control of the behavior by the external environment. The primary focus is on behavior under control of aversive environmental events, especially procedures under which such aversive events serve other than to suppress behavior. Many experiments involve procedures in which behavior is actually maintained by the delivery of intense electric shocks. We are studying the conditions that lead to the development of such seemingly anomolous behaviors, and are comparing drug effects on these behaviors with: effects on behavior suppressed by aversive events (punishment), on behavior maintained by the termination or postponement of such events (escape, avoidance), and on behavior maintained by presentation of non-aversive events such as food and water. Dose-effect relations will be established for a variety of drug classes (amphetamines, major and minor tranquilizers, antidepressants, narcotics). Through systematic study of the effects of a wide variety of drugs under a broad range of behavioral procedures, and under different historical and current behavioral contexts, we hope to arrive at generalizations that will prove useful in the rational prediction of drug effects in the clinic. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: McKearney, J. W. Effects of morphine, methadone, nalorphine, and naloxone on responding under fixed-interval (FI) schedules in the squirrel monkey. Federation Proceedings 34(3), 1975. McKearney, J. W. Punishment of responding under schedules of stimulus-shock termination: effects of d-amphetamine and pentobarbital. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1976 (in press).